In 1994, Revolution Software was launched Beneath a sky of steel, a cyberpunk point-and-click adventure game collaboration between Broken sword creator Charles Cecil and comic artist and Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons. I spent the weekend with Beyond a sky of steel, a sequel that I’ve been waiting for two and a half decades to play.
In adventure game circles, Beneath a sky of steel Launched in 1994 on 15 floppy disks (or a single CD-ROM), the cyberpunk saga of Robert Foster and his robot friend, Joey (or Ken) combined comic book imagery and masterful storytelling into an exceptional adventure. A little dark and gritty, a little ironic, it’s a dystopian future for feeling good. Those interested in revisiting history can grab the game for free at GOG.com.
Released on Friday for Apple Arcade and coming soon for PC and MAC, Beyond a sky of steel once again combines the Gibbons and Cecil’s talents. This time, the adventure is in 3D, with comic-style scenes. The original protagonist Robert Foster returns, years after leaving the utopian city of Union City in the hands of his faithful robot companion.
Just when Robert Foster thought he was done with city life, come back in. His peaceful life in a remote village is shattered when a robotic creature kidnaps the son of a good friend. Foster tracks the beast to the gates of Union City. In the years since he left the bustling city, he has grown, embellished, and become more bustling than ever. But his robot friend is no longer in charge and the children are being kidnapped, so it’s up to Robert to fix another Union City disaster.
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While Beyond a sky of steel it’s 3D polygons instead of 2D pixels, it’s the point-and-click adventure that was its predecessor. When Robert He arrives at the Union City gate and discovers that he has to be a citizen to enter. He finds a hacker who can give him the identity of a citizen, but his hacking tool was stolen by a bird. The bird may be lured with food, but the food is in the back of a truck guarded by a flock of angry (unrelated) birds. To scare away the birds, you must do a boy a favor, who gives him a firecracker. Once the birds are cleared, you can grab the food, lure the tool thief to a nearby electric fence, grab the falling tool, take it to the hacker, and get your new identity chip. You know, adventure games. There’s a cool hacking interface where players can play around with machine logic to solve puzzles, but it doesn’t stray far from the classic formula, which is fine.
The game is a little choppy on my Apple TV 4K, probably because you’re trying to run the game in 4K. My iPad Pro is much smoother, allowing me to enjoy 3D adventure at full volume without being distracted by low frame rates.
I am betting The PC version will be super smooth and amazing, but I couldn’t wait. Well, more than the 26 years that I already waited.
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